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Ernest Hemingway once wrote, A man can be destroyed but not defeated. There is indeed much to be said for this statement, as it can be taken to mean many things. Initial impressions are that Hemingway is speaking of personal honour, and how no man can have his honour taken away from him forcefully. No matter how great the suffering, or how undignified the death, the very nature of honour is that it is something that can only be lost through fault of the man.
Hence the quote, you can destroy a man, but you cannot defeat his spirit. The quote can also be taken to suggest martyrdom; while the man himself may be dead, his cause and influence lives on in the hearts and minds of others. Lastly, the quote could be taken as describing someone who was defiant and true until the end, never relenting, even in the face of death or worse. All of these things can be said, in varying degrees, about the character of Mc Murphy in Ken Kesey s One Flew Over The Cuckoo s Nest. The initial impression the reader gets of Mc Murphy is that of a roguish, liberal, free spirited, street wise, non-conformist and rather extroverted man we immediately feel he is going to be a thorn in Nurse Ratched s side. The Big Nurse is order and control, and in her eyes Mc Murphy could potentially be the harbinger of mayhem and disorder in her ward.
He threats that which she works so hard maintain. Nurse Ratched seems only mildly concerned however, as she too recognizes Mc Murphy for what he is after observing him briefly with the other patients and the effect he has on them. Some of the patients become excited, and even emboldened by Mc Murphy s presence, while others appear frightened after recognizing the threat he poses to the stability they take refuge in. Nurse Ratched seems as if she has encountered his kind before, citing the term manipulator in reference to Mc Murphy and others like him. We can only assume she has conquered such patients before, as she seems very confident she will conquer ths one.
As Mc Murphy settles into the ward, things begin to change. His influence over the other patients is interesting, and rather heartwarming to behold. Emboldened by Mc Murphy s influence, they begin to assert themselves in certain ways, such as standing up to the Big Nurse, or even making demands. Of course, Cheswick had always done this, but it was never taken seriously by anyone, least of all Nurse Ratched. Mc Murphy encourages freedom of speech and thought, a concept Nurse Ratched perceives as unstable and dangerous elements to be introduced to a mental ward.
As this continues, cracks in Nurse Ratched s iron-tight control over the patients begin to show. Mc Murphy seems to blissfully disregard Nurse Ratched s position of authority, and being unaccustomed to this, she gradually starts to show the strain in subtle, but no less noticeable ways. Hemingway s quote comes to mind when studying Mc Murphy s numerous victories over Nurse Ratched; although Mc Murphy often does not get his way with the nurse, he never shows defeat in any way, nor even acknowledge that there was a contest of sorts. This is what distresses Nurse Ratched the most she can never truly win over Mc Murphy, as nothing she does seems to so much as dent his spirit. Nurse Ratched s inability to ever truly win over Mc Murphy, no matter what the circumstances, is arguably no better exemplified in the incident involving Mc Murphy wanting to watch the World Series on television. Although Nurse Ratched has turned the television off, Mc Murphy sits and watches anyway, as if it didn t matter whether it was on or off.
As the other patients grow braver, they too follow Mc Murphy s example and infuriate the Big Nurse by doing as Mc Murphy does simply sit and watch the television. This tactic is very effective, as it is the only part in the book where we see such a display of anger from the Nurse. The fact that they never got to watch a minute of baseball is trivial. Nurse Ratched knows that if she can t beat Mc Murphy directly, then she can get to him by quelling any support he has among the other patients. She devises a number of strategies to do this, among them are trying to convince the patients that Mc Murphy is only using them for monetary gain.
As an self-confessed gambler, Mc Murphy has won a lot of money from just about everyone in the ward, and Nurse Ratched partially succeeds in convincing the patients that when Mc Murphy has what he wants from them he will leave them all for dry. This is a hard and bitter possibility for the patients to accept, as Mc Murphy has become somewhat of a hero to them. The Nurse s plan is soon foiled however, as Mc Murphy time and time again proves his is true to the patients by putting himself on the line for them, even in situations where he stands to gain nothing. Nurse Ratched cannot legally stop Mc Murphy s fishing trip, but she does her best to stop it from happening by once again using what can only be considered as a form of propaganda to discourage the other patients from signing up for the trip. Her news clippings and bad weather reports distress most of the patients, but not enough to warrant cancelling the trip. As punishment for unspeakable behaviour concerning house duties, Nurse Ratched decides it best to remove one of the privileges enjoyed by the patients.
She takes away the patients right to use the tub room, set up by Mc Murphy, for their card games. Everyone expects this to be the Big Nurse s final victory over Mc Murphy, as there is nothing he can do about it. Mc Murphy then proceeds to smash the Nurse Station window, claiming he was reaching for a pack of cigarettes and didn t notice the glass, clean as it was. Once again this is the typical kind of tactic Mc Murphy uses throughout the book to win his differences against Nurse Ratched. While Mc Murphy s actions often do not change the issue at hand, and can even make things worse, it is still acknowledged by everyone that is is the ultimate victor over Nurse Ratched. Once again, this relates to the Hemingway quote.
Perhaps the most literal example of Hemingway s words in One Flew Over The Cuckoo s Nest is when Mc Murphy is lobotomized, following a physical assault on Nurse Ratched. While she did truly destroy him this time, he was never defeated. His legacy lived on in the lives he touched, and changed. Many of the Acutes left soon after the party or when Mc Murphy was lobotomized. Mc Murphy had given them what no doctor, nurse, or psychologist could he had given them the taste of a normal life. He had made them feel like real people, not waste products of society.
This is what gave them the courage and the inspiration to finally face the outside world, and carry on with a normal life. Kesey portal this brilliantly, and as readers we feel as inspired as the parents themselves. While Mc Murphy may have been destroyed, his victory was of a grand scale indeed.
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